Meta lays off ‘lowest performers,’ plans fresh hiring in 2025
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Tech giant Meta is initiating another round of workforce restructuring, targeting approximately 5% (about 3,600) of its employees identified as lower performers across its 72,000-strong workforce.
This move comes as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s continued push for efficiency and higher performance standards.
Performance management overhaul
Hillary Champion, Meta’s director of people development growth programs, outlined the process in an internal memo, a copy of which was obtained by Business Insider: “We have really ambitious goals, so we need to manage our workforce in a way that ensures we have the strongest talent working here and can move faster in managing out low performers”.
According to the document, Meta’s managers are instructed to classify employees into performance tiers based on their past year’s contributions. Those categorized below the “Met Most Expectations” threshold will face termination. This move aligns with Meta’s goal to achieve a 10% “non-regrettable” attrition rate, combining the targeted reductions from both last year and this year.
Strategic realignment
The restructuring aligns with Meta’s increasing focus on artificial intelligence technology, following similar moves by tech giants like Cisco and IBM. This latest round of cuts follows significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023 when the company eliminated approximately 21,000 positions.
Affected employees will receive “generous severance packages,” and Meta plans to backfill these positions in 2025. The company will determine terminations through a calibration process, where even some employees meeting most expectations may be impacted based on departmental targets.
This workforce adjustment comes shortly after Meta’s decision to scale back its U.S. fact-checking program and certain diversity initiatives, signaling a broader organizational transformation.
